208 BRITISH ANTS. 



Botanical Gardens at Cambridge from April 2nd to 8th, 1869 20 , 

 but this may have been due to the fact that the ants' nest was 

 situated near to the hot- water pipes, though the temperature in the 

 house during the day was only 60-65 Fahrenht., and 55-60 by 

 night. 



As an instance of the vast numbers of males and females of 

 D. nigra which are produced a record by F. Smith may be men- 

 tioned. He writes : " In the month of September, 1855, 1 observed 

 at Dover immense clouds of this ant passing over the town towards 

 the sea ; and subsequently, on passing along the beach, I observed 

 a line of their floating bodies extending from the town at least a 

 mile towards St. Margaret's the line consisted of males and 

 females, and was about a yard broad." 18 



Immediately after the marriage flight the females get rid of their 

 wings and seek suitable places in which to lay their eggs, as the 

 females of the large-bodied species of Donisthorpea (D. nigra, aliena, 

 and flava) which are considerably larger than their workers, lay eggs 

 only a few days after fecundation, and are very capable of founding 

 their colonies unaided. 



They can live for a considerable time without food, partly sub- 

 sisting on the muscles, which are completely broken down, as Janet 

 has shown, within a few weeks after deflation 51 . The fatty and 

 albuminoid substances derived from the histolysed wing-muscles 

 are carried in the blood to the abdomen, where they are taken up 

 by the ovaries and, no doubt, contribute greatly to the growth of 

 the eggs. 



Dealated females, with small egg-packets, may frequently be 

 met with in the autumn, in small cavities under stones, and in holes 

 and crevices in the earth. 



Latreille wrote, in 1802, of D. nigra one meets often females 

 deprived of the wings, either running on the ground, or hidden, and 

 also alone, under stones 6 . I have frequently met with such females 

 on October 28th, 1908, many deflated females of Donisthorpea 

 nigra and flava were dug up at Luccombe Chine with their eggs in 

 the little cells they had formed, and in one instance a couple of nigra 

 females were found together in the same cell with a batch of eggs 52 . 

 Wheeler once found two females of Donisthorpea brevicornis to- 

 gether, and he writes " . . . under very exceptional circumstances, 

 a couple of females from the same maternal nest may meet after their 

 marriage flight and together start a colony. During August, 1904, 

 I found two dealated females of Lasius brevicornis occupying 

 a small cavity under a clump of moss on a large boulder near Cole- 

 brook, Connecticut. They had a few larvae and small cocoons, and 

 a couple of tiny callow workers. . . . Without doubt these twin 

 females were sisters that had accidentally met under the same 

 bit of moss and had renewed the friendly relations in which they had 

 lived before taking their nuptial flight. This case is of considerable 



